Bill Palladino - Women's Soccer Coach - University of North Carolina Athletics

Bill Palladino

Title:
Assistant Coach

In 2018, Bill Palladino returns for his 38th year as a member of the Tar Heel women’s soccer coaching staff.

Palladino has served as the chief assistant coach for the Carolina women’s soccer program since the 1980 season when he joined Anson Dorrance’s staff in the Carolina women’s soccer’s second varsity season. Palladino has demonstrated tremendous loyalty to the program he helped head coach Anson Dorrance shape at UNC. During his entire tenure at Carolina, Palladino has specialized in developing some of the top defenses in the history of collegiate soccer. He has received multiple opportunities to move to head coaching positions elsewhere in Division I but his loyalty to the Carolina program has kept him in Chapel Hill.

Palladino’s success in developing brilliant defensive schemes has been a key element in leading Tar Heel teams to 21 Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament championships, 21 ACC regular-season titles and 22 national collegiate titles since he joined the staff in 1980. Those are astounding numbers indeed.

The defenses Palladino has coached at Carolina have allowed only 484 goals in the 934 games the Tar Heels have played in their history, an average of a mere 0.52 goals per game. He did one of his best coaching jobs in 2012 as injuries decimated the UNC defensive corps with returning starters Megan Brigman missing the entire season and Caitlin Ball missing most of the regular season. But Palladino retooled the defense, relied on a versatile corps of players including Crystal Dunn, Hanna Gardner, Satara Murray and Katie Bowen and sparked Carolina to its 22nd national championship. In the final four rounds of the NCAA Tournament, including three games against No. 1 tournament seeds, the Tar Heels allowed only one goal in the run of play and three goals overall. The highlight of that streak was a 1-0 double overtime shutout of top-ranked and defending NCAA champion Stanford in the NCAA semifinals.

In 2014, Carolina played the nation’s most difficult schedule but shared the ACC regular-season championship and earned a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament on the strength of a defense which allowed only 15 goals in 20 games, compensating for the fact UNC had season-long offensive struggles.

The Tar Heels’ Palladino-led defense was again a key factor in UNC’s run to the 2016 NCAA College Cup, Carolina’s first trip to the national semifinals since 2012. Carolina came on at the end of the season and allowed only two goals combined in its three ACC Tournament and five NCAA Tournament games combined. In 2017, Carolina won its first ACC Tournament championship in eight years, allowing only a single goal in conference tournament play and pitching shutouts in the semifinals and finals.

Palladino was rewarded with the Glenn “Mooch” Myernick Award as the national assistant coach of the year by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America following the 2012 campaign when Carolina claimed its 22nd national title.

Carolina’s defense was also the key to the success of the 2009 team which outscored its opponents 63-12 en route to winning UNC’s 21st national championship. The Tar Heels’ patented flat back three defense of Kristi Eveland, Whitney Engen and Rachel Givan, along with goalkeeper Ashlyn Harris, recorded 19 shutouts on the season as the Tar Heels went 23-3-1. UNC posted a pair of long shutout streaks in 2009 as Tar Heel opponents went without goals for both eight-game and seven-game stretches during the season. The team allowed only two goals in nine post-season contests in the ACC and NCAA Tournaments combined.

Under Palladino’s expert direction, Carolina defensive units have consistently been a critical cog in Tar Heel runs to national championships. In 1987, the Tar Heels set an NCAA record on the defensive end of the field unlikely to ever be matched. The team allowed only two goals all season. Goalkeeper Anne Sherow led an incredible defensive effort which produced 22 shutouts in 24 games. Those 22 shutouts stand as an NCAA record that has only been equaled once and that was by another UNC team exactly one decade later. While going 27-0-1 in 1997, the Tar Heels posted 22 shutouts in the team’s 28 games.

In 2003, Palladino worked his magic again with the UNC defense. That defense did not allow a single goal in six NCAA Tournament games as the Tar Heels outscored their opponents 32-0. It stands as the most efficient defensive effort ever in an NCAA Tournament.

In 2002-03, he served as the top assistant coach for the U.S. Women’s National Team before retiring from that role in January 2004. In that capacity, Palladino served as the chief assistant to U.S. National Team head coach April Heinrichs. In the fall of 2003, Palladino split his duties between UNC and the National Team as it competed in the 2003 Women’s World Cup. The U.S. women won the bronze medal in that competition.

Palladino came aboard as an assistant coach during the program’s second year in existence and has been coaching along side Dorrance through the last 38 years.
In 1991, Palladino was named South Region Coach of the Year by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. He took over the helm for much of that season as interim head coach while Dorrance directed the efforts of the U.S. Women’s National Team in its successful quest to win the 1991 Women’s World Cup title in China. Palladino was head coach of the Tar Heels for 10 games that season and Carolina was victorious in each contest, including three games in the NCAA Tournament. North Carolina won the 10th of its 22 national titles with a 3-1 win over Wisconsin on November 24, 1991 at Fetzer Field.

“For me, Bill is the reason I enjoy my job so much,” says Tar Heel head coach Anson Dorrance. “He is the reason the players enjoy the program so much. Bill is a big part of the reason there is such great team chemistry.

“Bill is a team builder. He has helped us develop a philosophy toward player development that encourages an informal but effective rapport between players and coaches.”

Palladino’s coaching career with the Carolina women’s team began in 1980. A Chapel Hill, N.C. native, Palladino joined the staff that year after three seasons as an assistant coach – also to Dorrance – with the UNC men’s soccer program from 1977-79.

Palladino has served as an assistant coach with North Carolina Courage of the NWSL the past two years. Each of those years he has helped lead the Courage to the NWSL regular seson championship. He coaches former Tar Heels Crystal Dunn, Jessica McDonald, Merritt Matthias and Heather O’Reilly with the Courage.

The 68-year-old Palladino holds an “A” coaching license from the U.S. Soccer Federation. He was head coach of the South team at the 1995 U.S. Olympic Festival in Denver, Colo. He also served as head coach of the Raleigh Wings in the W League in the late 1990s. Under his stewardship, the team completed an undefeated season in 1998 and added a second W League crown in 1999.
At Carolina, his duties include on-field coaching, overseeing camps, scouting and administration. He is also in charge of putting together UNC’s non-conference schedule each year.

A 1973 UNC graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology, Palladino played varsity men’s soccer at Carolina for three seasons from 1970-72 under the aegis of legendary head coach Marvin Allen. He holds a master’s degree in education from NC State and has worked on a doctorate in education at UNC.
Palladino expanded his already-vast repertoire of skills from 2001-03 when he served as a sideline reporter and color commentator for national and regional WUSA telecasts.

Palladino has two children from his first marriage. Twins Bill and Suzi live in Charlotte, N.C., and Asheville, N.C., respectively. Suzi is a teacher and Bill is a producer/director for ESPN.

Palladino is married to former Tar Heel soccer star Wendy Gebauer Palladino, who earned All-America honors while playing at UNC from 1985-88 and was a member of the U.S. Team that won the initial World Cup in 1991. Bill and Wendy are the parents of Zachary Ryan Palladino, who was born on January 14, 2005.